The Kupelwieser Waltz

The Kupelwieser Waltz is a unique case of an oral tradition, the written documentation of which we owe to the good friendship of my grandmother Maria Mautner Markhof (née Kupelwieser) with Richard Strauss. On this from the memoirs of my grandfather Manfred I Mautner Markhof:

“My wife once played a small but very typical waltz from Franz Schubert, a friend of her great-grandfather Leopold, to our friend Richard Strauss. It was composed in 1826 on the occasion of the wedding of her great-grandparents, Leopold Kupelwieser and Johanna von Lutz – a cousin of  Franz Grillparzer. It is a characteristic of this incredibly talented and music-loving era that Schubert did not need to write that waltz down at all, it was enough that he played it a few times and everyone could replay it by heart. This is how my wife had learned it from her grandfather Paul Kupelwieser – the founder of Brioni – and so the family’s waltz was preserved for the next generation. One day now, before an agreed game of skat in Simmering, to our greatest delight, Richard Strauss suggested putting the waltz on paper. My wife played for him, he took some notes and a few days later he gave us a neat fair copy of the little piece of music. In terms of music history, this document is remarkable, since Richard Strauss obviously could not resist colouring some expressions “Straussian”, what music lovers and connoisseurs will recognize immediately.”

Kupelwieser Waltz, version of Richard Strauss by Isolde Ahlgrimm, Deutsche Grammophon

Kupelwieser Waltz version of “Pussy“ Mautner Markhof, Deutsche Grammophon

Report Austrian Music Magazine

The Waltz